The worst feeling in the world for a writer is when something gets deleted. It’s 3 am here, and I spent two hours finishing the rough draft of a 5 chapter ebook. I spent an hour trying to recover the ebook. But, now, I only have three chapters. Albeit, it…

My daughter and I created a “day in the life” video for my newsletter — I had the idea of experimenting with video on Substack; I, like every writer now under the sun, have a newsletter on that platform called Briefly by Melissa. Thinking that this was a way to be intimate with my readers, I felt a day in the life with my family…

Sometimes I feel like I have no worth other than being a mother. Ok, I know the immediate response might be from some, isn’t being a mom good enough? Isn’t that the most incredible job possible? The other reaction from others would be, Oh my God, of course, your worth…

The Handmaid’s Tale villain shows us the internal conflicts of motherhood. — Imagine yourself almost passing out, falling over, while holding on to your baby, while having to work. Now, take away the having to part. Would you? The answer would be yes if it’s fulfilling, right? Or could it be fulfilling under those circumstances? I guess that for many new mothers…

Every day, for the past 3 weeks, I’ve been practicing T-Touch on our two horses, rubbing between their eyes down the middle of their noses. It’s a type of touch that relaxes them, and builds trust. But it also does the same for the human touching them. I never thought…

Why I am reclaiming this space for me. — It’s been a pretty long time since my last confession. I mean article. And I have had a pretty good reason. Why? The powers that be got rid of the ability to use the Medium app to write. It was the main way I wrote on this platform. As a stay-at-home mom who also homeschools, writing on a computer was basically impossible. In terms of finding…

Making money off your life sounds appealing — but is it right? — Imagine having videos of your family uploaded to Youtube every day. Or every week. You go on cool vacations, unbox exciting products, have big shopping hauls, and play games as a family. And it’s all captured on film. …

Why was Scott Baio trending? Every once in a while I will see someone famous trending and I will be reminded of their existence. One day, Scott Baio got the honor. He was a trending topic on Twitter a few months ago. I was checking this metric, as I did…

I think Covid has jumped the shark. The first time I thought this is when I saw that a dancing couple would perform virtually AND separately on Dancing With the Stars. All because both the celebrity and the professional dancer tested positive for Covid. Cody Rigsby and Cheryl Burke were…